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Giving birth in Philippine quake: ‘Push and pray’

By The Associated Press

CALAPE, Philippines — Eileen Rose Carabana and her mother were in their mountain village house when the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippine island of Bohol. Moments later, she felt an unmistakable intense pain in her abdomen —Carabana was about to go into labor.

There was no other way to get to a doctor but to hike several kilometers down a mountain to the hospital in Calape, a coastal town devastated by Tuesday’s quake that killed at least 158 people and destroyed thousands of homes and a dozen or more centuries-old churches.

“I was worried for my baby because I could already feel tummy pain,” the 19-year-old recalled Thursday.

When she made it to the hospital, Carabana found patients had already been evacuated to a tent outside, where a humming generator provided light for emergency procedures.

As she went into labor, Carabana said she felt the ground shaking from aftershocks. “I was very scared and I prayed that I would just have a normal delivery in spite of the tragedy,” she said.

She recalled the words of the hospital staff: “Just push and pray, push and pray.”

Later Tuesday night, she gave birth to a healthy, 5.3-pound baby named James Lyndon.

Carabana was one of five young mothers who have delivered in Calape since the quake hit Bohol Island.

Calape Mayor Sulpicio Yu said that almost 90 percent of the buildings in his town, with a population of 32,000, were partially or totally damaged. At least five people were killed in Calape.

On Thursday, authorities said that rescuers and emergency supplies were getting through to towns that had been isolated by the quake and where residents were camped out in tents waiting for assistance and to start repairing homes.

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Evacuation could have saved lives in Japan typhoon

TOKYO — The mayor of a Japanese island devastated by a deadly typhoon apologized Thursday for failing to issue an evacuation order, as rescue workers combed through mountains of debris searching for the missing.

Typhoon Wipha, which swept up Japan’s east coast on Wednesday, killed at least 22 people, and more than 30 others are missing, government officials said. Most of the victims were on the island of Izu Oshima, about 75 miles south of Tokyo.

“There is concern that perhaps more lives could have been saved if there had been an evacuation. We have concluded this and must apologize,” Mayor Masafumi Kawashima said at a news conference. “It’s my deepest regret and I will not forget this.”

About 1,100 rescuers were searching through huge piles of trees and destroyed homes swept downhill by mudslides, shouting in hopes of finding survivors. The search was hampered by the slippery mud.

Town officials had issued repeated warnings of river flooding early Wednesday morning, during the worst of the torrential downpour, but stopped short of ordering any areas evacuated.

Initially, Kawashima defended the decision, saying Wednesday night that he feared a middle-of-the-night evacuation under such harsh conditions would do more harm than good.

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Relief around world as U.S. avoids default

BEIJING — Political leaders, investors and ordinary people Thursday welcomed the end of a U.S. government shutdown but already were looking ahead to the next round of a budget battle that brought the world’s biggest economy close to default and threatens Washington’s international standing.

The deal approved late Wednesday by Congress, with hours to go before the government reached its $16.7 trillion debt limit, only permits the Treasury to borrow through Feb. 7 and fund government through Jan. 15. The International Monetary Fund appealed to Washington for more stable long-term management of the nation’s finances.

The standoff rattled global markets and threatened the image of U.S. Treasury debt as a risk-free place for governments and investors to store trillions of dollars in reserve. Few expected a default but some investors sold Treasurys over concern about possible payment delays and put off buying stocks that might be exposed to an American economic downturn.

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde welcomed the deal but said the shaky American economy needs more stable long-term finances.

“It will be essential to reduce uncertainty surrounding the conduct of fiscal policy by raising the debt limit in a more durable manner,” Lagarde said in a statement.

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Bodies recovered in Mekong after Laos plane crash

PAKSE, Laos — Rescuers in fishing boats pulled bodies from the muddy Mekong River on Thursday as officials in Laos ruled out finding survivors from a plane that crashed in stormy weather, killing 49 people from 11 countries.

Backpacks, two broken airplane propellers and passports were among the debris scattered on the riverbank where the Lao Airlines turboprop plane left deep skid marks in the ground before disappearing into the water Wednesday.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said search teams had recovered the bodies of 15 crash victims by the time their operations ended Thursday because of the strong current and darkness. He said they were unable to immediately identify them or their nationalities.

Thailand, which lost five nationals in the crash, is deeply involved in the search, providing skilled manpower and technology that its poorer neighbor lacks.

Yakao Lopangkao, director-general of Lao’s Department of Civil Aviation, who was at the crash site in Pakse in southern Laos, ruled out finding survivors.

“There is no hope,” he said. “The plane appears to have crashed very hard before entering the water.”

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Amid attacks, Egypt’s Copts preserve heritage

THE RED MONASTERY, Egypt — Locked inside a 6th century church in a desert monastery are some of the jewels of early Christianity — ancient murals in vivid pinks, greens and reds depicting saints, angels and the Virgin Mary with a baby Jesus, hidden for centuries under a blanket of black soot.

Italian and Egyptian restorers are meticulously uncovering the paintings, some of the earliest surviving and most complete examples of early Coptic Christian art. But the work, in the final stages more than a decade after it started, is done quietly to avoid drawing attention — and there’s no plan to try to attract visitors, at least not now.

“This is our heritage and we must protect it,” said Father Antonius, abbot of the Red Monastery where the Anba Bishay Church is located. He takes it as a personal mission to protect it. The church’s heavy wooden door has only two keys. He keeps one and a young monk he trusts keeps the other.

“I don’t think there is a church anywhere in Egypt that even begins to match the beauty of this one,” Antonius said, beaming like a proud father.

The little known Anba Bishay Church offers a striking example of how Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Church jealously guards its heritage against formidable odds — whether decades of neglect, discrimination by the Muslim majority or the violence by Islamic militants, who have gained significant power since the 2011 ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The protection of its heritage took on greater urgency when 40 churches were wrecked, burned and looted in a pogrom-like wave of attacks in August, blamed on Islamic militants. Coptic leaders say the attacks are the worst in centuries.

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UN set to elect new Security Council members

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly elects five new members to the Security Council on Thursday and the winners are virtually certain because there are no contested races — Nigeria, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania and Chile.

Chad, Saudi Arabia and Lithuania have never served on the U.N.’s most powerful body while Nigeria and Chile have both been on the council four times previously.

Security Council seats are highly coveted because they give countries a strong voice in matters dealing with international peace and security, such as Syria, sanctions against Iran and North Korea and the U.N.’s far-flung peacekeeping operations.

The 15-member council includes five permanent members with veto power — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and 10 nonpermanent members elected for two-year terms.

Seats are allocated by region, and regional groups nominate candidates. There are often hotly contested races. In 2007, for example, a runoff between Guatemala and Venezuela went 47 rounds before Panama was finally offered, and elected, as the Latin America candidate.

This year, there were initially two candidates for a West African seat but Gambia dropped out last week in favor of Nigeria.

To win, each country must obtain support of two-thirds of all General Assembly members present, or a minimum of 129 votes if all 193 members participate.

Because balloting is secret, there is intense lobbying for votes by candidates, even in uncontested races, to ensure they get the minimum number needed for victory.

Winners will assume their posts on Jan. 1 and serve through the end of 2015.

The five winners on Thursday will replace Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo.

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